Beschreibung:

HAZLITT, William (1778-1830). Autograph letter signed ('W.H.') to Peter George Patmore ('My dear friend'), [Edinburgh, 17 July, 1822] , writing about his imminent divorce, 'To-morrow is the fatal day that makes or mars me. I will let you know the result by a line added to this. Yet what signifies it since either way I have little hope there', ending 'Dear P. It is all over & I am free', expecting to be back in London on Saturday, 3 pages, 4to , address panel and seal on verso of second leaf (tear from seal in outer margin of leaf, with loss of one word). He continues to write about his unrequited passion for Sarah Walker, 'Is there another being, think you on the face of the earth, that after my intimacy with her & my adoration of her, could have been that object of indifference or aversion to her that I am? ... " Rejected of women !" Yet I too could have adored as constantly & loved as tenderly as others, had I been permitted ... If she will but have me, I'll make her love me'. Published by Hazlitt in a very different version in his Liber Amoris , as 'Letter the Last', compiled in 1822 from his letters to Patmore and Knowles. Published from there in The Letters of William Hazlitt ed. H.M.Sikes, no.122. The present original version is unpublished. PATMORE, Peter George (1786-1855). Autograph letter signed ('PGP') to William Hazlitt London, 28 June 1822 , saying that he has collected Hazlitt's manuscripts from his wife's house, and offers to act as intermediary with Sarah Walker, 'it will then remain to be ascertained whether she is disposed to receive you once more as a friend & treat you kindly ... If she persists in her cold & obstinate silence - what you are to do I cannot guess ... to ask you to forget her would be impertinent for you cannot if you would, I would ask even if the memory of her cost you ten times more misery than it does', 4 pages, 4to , with address panel in centre of last page. (2)